Ohio State has a 15-year, $252 million deal with Nike, which is just ahead of Texas’s $250 million deal with Nike.

That’s more than $500 million for two schools. If you think that could buy a lot of textbooks, consider this:

Nike’s revenues in 2016 were $32.6 billion. The GDP for the nation of Knicks star Kristaps Porzingis’ Latvia was $27.6 billion.

Adidas’s revenue last year was $22.65 billion, slightly more than Starbucks ($21.31 billion). Under Armour’s revenue was $4.83 billion in 2016, more than double from $2.33 billion in 2013.

“There is a major arms race going on,” George Belch, a marketing professor at San Diego State, recently told the L.A. Times after Under Armour signed UCLA to a record 15-year, $280 million merchandise deal.

But the players don’t share in the college and sneaker company profits.

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Take the No. 14 jersey worn by USC quarterback Sam Darnold, who could be the No. 1 pick in next year’s NFL Draft. It sells for $135 on Nike’s website. As an amateur athlete, Darnold doesn’t get a penny of that revenue and his name is not on the back of the jersey.

Why shouldn’t Darnold, or any elite recruit, not take a payoff?

It’s only once they turn pro that they can cash in like Odell Beckham Jr., who stands to collect $48 million from Nike over eight years.

The giant sneaker companies – Nike, Adidas and Under Armour – share seats at a power table with the networks that televise college sports.

The Big Ten’s latest TV deal with ESPN, Fox Sports and CBS, is worth $2.6 billion over six years, according to published reports. Member schools, such as Michigan, will receive an estimated $43 million in 2017-18.

Maryland and Rutgers didn’t join the Big Ten because it’s a better conference. It joined because the Big Ten prints money. The conference invited those two universities because there are a lot of TVs, tablets and smartphones in New York and Washington D.C.

Just as reporters follow the money when politicians are living a lavish lifestyle, the Justice Department and FBI has followed the billions in college sports.

Adidas has a $160 million merchandise deal with the Cardinals, which also got $26.2 million from the Atlantic Coast Conference in 2014-15.

What’s $100,000 among unofficial collaborators?

The cycle is vicious and unrelenting.

The better recruits a school signs, the more it can receive in merchandising and television rights. That increases the pressure on coaches, schools and conferences to get the best players — at any cost.